In order to appease my aching conscience, that year I subscribed to a service that mailed out science kits every month. I soon learned that conducting experiments is not equivalent to an actual science education, especially when my curious children asked why the experiment worked the way it did. (I didn’t know.) We hadn’t learned the science behind the experiment. Doing experiments unrelated to what we were learning proved ineffective and unmemorable. A complete waste of time.

Lesson learned. My perfect science course would include only relevant experiments. There wouldn’t be an excessive number of them—only enough to solidify and assimilate the information covered in the text, thus increasing my children’s understanding and retention.